Re:CREATORS Episode 9

“The world requires choice and resolution.”

Did you know that Magane was supposed to be a villain? The show doesn’t think you get it yet, so she manipulates Aliceteria to hunt down our heroes.

Iro’s thoughts

So here’s the running theme of my coverage: Re:CREATORS has the capacity – the potential – to be so much better than it is, it just almost never chooses to do so. I feel like this episode shows that more than any of the others so far. It’s easy to see the spots this week where the show hits the mark and where it shoots wildly, not even caring about how tiresome it gets. Perhaps that’s a bigger issue than we’re ready to tackle in a weekly coverage post that I wing at the last minute, but… we’ll see.

Magane – the psychotic DRRR!!-looking girl with a perpetual shark-toothed sneer – takes center stage this week, doing her villain thing. I predicted a few episodes ago that she’d be the driving villain for the next few episodes, and it seems I’m being proven right as we start to ramp up towards the end of the first cour. I don’t think of DRRR when she’s on screen for nothing, since she follows the same school of thought as that show’s Izaya: act aloof and flippant about everything, and then feed people misinformation and sophistry for no other reason than “the lulz”. Everyone also inexplicably listens to anything they say instead of just ignoring them outright, because otherwise shit might actually get done, and we can’t have that.

It’s worse with Magane because her ill-defined superpowers actually require her to lie repeatedly, and most of the cast should know this by virtue of her being a fictional character in-universe. Nobody should be paying her any heed whatsoever, except the plot demands it, so they do. Why would Alice believe anything Magane says? Why would Sota agree to meet her alone? Why would Mamika – even a desperate and bleeding out Mamika – trust her to deliver a message properly, instead of just telling Alice once she arrived? Because otherwise, Magane’s existence in the plot is superfluous.

They could have used this. Re:CREATORS is like Fate/Stay Night, but with any mystery about the characters’ true names or true abilities removed; how would fights play out if everyone knew everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses? Magane could be a more effective (or at least, more interesting) villain if everyone treated her like one, and she actually had to struggle to achieve her goals, pointlessly malicious as they may be. Except, that’s much harder to write than just letting her do her thing. On a meta level, it’s convenient – I would argue even desirable – for a baddie to succeed in pushing the heroes, but not at the cost of making the heroes look like fools. The only reason I have to root for any of the “good” characters at this point is because they’re fighting to save the world (according to Meteora’s bizarre hypothesis about which they still have no proof whatsoever); none of them seem to have any actual heroic qualities worth rooting for.

Look, I get it. If you can get away with doing less work, taking the easy route, you do it. There are deadlines. The show’s got enough talent behind it that it’s going to sell well anyway. I just wish we were better than this.

Re:Observations

A bit of credit where credit is due: Sota figures out that Magane is lying about Mamika, he just is then reduced to a blubbering mess by her taunting. Also, given Magane’s dumbass superpowers, wouldn’t that realization reverse reality so that Meteora actually did kill Mamika and Altair is actually trying to save the world? Too bad the writers didn’t think about that.

Meteora literally describes Magane’s power as “reversing cause and effect”, and I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. For those not in the know, that’s one of the many bullshit powers from the Fate franchise, and that phrase in particular is a bit of an in-joke when it comes to poorly explained superpowers.’

11 thoughts on “Re:CREATORS Episode 9”

I can’t even hate Magane’s character, however absurdly forced she was into the plot, because at least she keeps me entertained, which I can’t really say of any of the other characters. Madoka’s character arc was interesting but then they killed her so eh. Also, although Magane never-bleeping-stopped-talking this episode and it was annoying, at least the voice acting keeps me somewhat engaged, even though I wouldn’t be able to tell you now (an hour after watching the episode) a single thing she talked about. But the moment Meteora appeared and started expositioning I was struggling to stay awake. Maybe that’s her special power. They should’ve killed her instead of Madoka.

All that being said, Magane’s whole role in this arc is so contrived my eyes might roll all the way to the back of my skull sooner than later. Literally this whole plot conflict wouldn’t exist if, instead of “Obvious Death Flag Phrase #87675” Madoka had told Saber “Hey, I’m suspicious of Nazi Gilgamesh and imma go confront her, wanna hang?” Honestly her death scene was so infuriating because it was so transparently engineered for the sake of the plot i.e. not giving Saber any information and relying entirely on Magane.

Overall I agree with your take, the show has such potential for brilliance and it misses it again and again. For now Magane keeps me entertained -even if I still don’t understand how her power even works- but once her time as a villain inevitably ends with this cour, and without Madoka’s crazy OP mahoushoujo schtick, I’m not sure if there’ll be anything to keep me hooked for the second half

One of the things I find most infuriating is how Magane seems to be around for every single important plot development. Which is perhaps the only thing lazier than Meteora’s endless nattering and unexplainable exposition.

Yeah, totally great points. Nevertheless, my brain is already set on with the conception that Re:Creators=Masterpiece. So, yeah. Don’t even expect a sound argument or discussion about how you’re wrong (you aren’t, don’t worry) from me because I’ll just unilaterally say “it’s a masterpiece”. Because screw objectivity. (I do clearly recognize its flaws though). I’m one of those types that do not deeply analyze things, but just measure them through “enjoyment”, thus even bad Anime, as long as they get a reaction from me, are still better than boring and dull ones for me.

By the way, it’s always nice to see others mentioning Fate. I love it, and the fact that Re:Creators gives the same vibes is a great plus for me (but that’s just me being a Fate fanboi, if you were to put some elements or refernce to Kabukibu! I would probably like it too eventhough I think it’s extremely boring). Thus I call it Fate/Creators because my chuunibyou is kicking in.